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Aries 8 Elements

Your true zodiac sign is Aries! Openness, enthusiasm and individualism are the main traits of the Arians. They are outspoken, alert, quick to act and speak. They prefer to speak than to listen. Arians are ambitious, with lots of drive and a strong will to lead. They are poor followers. Fiercely independent, they usually take the side of the underdog in any controversy. They are champions of lost causes and losing battles. This trait is due to a strong belief in their own abilities to turn any situation around. Arian values are more intellectual than spiritual. Primarily people of action, they demonstrate little subtlety or cunningness. Frank and amiable, they make quick decisions, and grasp ideas very quickly. They are also quick to anger, Arians are known for their impatience, and are prone to be arrogant. Arians have a strong self image, the ability to think fast and size up most situations in an instant. Arians calculate risks with lightning speed and make decisions accordingly. An adage that fits the Arian well is 'A straight line is the shortest distance between two points'. Arians don't waste time and energy beating around the bush, they come straight to the point, and leave the bodies where they fall. Did this description fit you well? Did you enjoy my test? Please rate it and feel free to shoot me some feedback!!

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 98% on Elements

Link: The Real Zodiac Sign Test written by katylove on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Ok Very Clearly I need to explain this again

As people in the media really don't seem to get it.

Would that anyone could say the same about many of the deal's critics. Whatever their concerns may be, whatever their fears might be, they would not have had them, expressed them or have seen them in print had the middle name of the United Arab Emirates been something else. After all, no one goes nuts over Germany, the country where some of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists lived and attended school.

First problem with Mr. Cohen's logic here ( and I think the deal should go through though I'm not happy with the deal)

A Private German company is different then a State Owned Arab company.

A Private German company tends to (by and large) be driven by profit not state intrest (*which changes more then Adam Smith's foundational principles of Capitalism do*)

But lets get to the notion for a moment that Germany is equivilenth to the UAE because some arab terrorists lived and went to school there.

Do cultural institutions ran/controled by the German state reinforce and promote the fact Jews are less human then Arabs? They don't do they... in fact in Germany such rhetoric tends to be illegal (but they tend to not enforce the rules on privately controled Muslim cultural insitutions)

So that is different now isn't it?

The UAE sponsored the criminal regime of the Taliban and the Germans didn't

now you can argue the UAE has changed, and I can even accept that argument but 5 years ago the UAE was snuggly with people who were giving safe haven to those who brutally murdered many American citizens. Such a thing cannot be said about Germany.

Now say in 10 years, or 20 years if the trend continues then it would be a less then fair critical point.

Somewhere in the White House, a political operative must have slapped his head in consternation as Bush made that remark. The politic thing for a President with a dismal approval rating (about 40%) would have been to join with the critics, get ahead of the anti-Arab wave and announce that he, too, was concerned about the deal. Instead, the White House stuck to its guns.

No, No it wasn't the politic thing to do.

The Politic thing to do was to make a real argument (Not "trust us") for the deal and win the people over to your side.

Demagougery never ends well and thats what the white house did.... that is very bad politics.

but then the article by Mr. Cohen is demagougery of the first order so why should I expect anything less.......

A weird and Funny Banned Cartoon in the Scandinavialands

This has come up in Finland

The board of Finnish culture magazine Kaltio decided Friday to sack its editor, Jussi Vilkuna, after he refused to remove a cartoon featuring a masked prophet Muhammad from the magazine’s website.

Harri Kynnös, the chairman, told the Finnish News Agency (STT) that letting Mr Vilkuna go after eight years as editor of Kaltio had been a difficult one. Mr Vilkuna said the board’s decision illustrated that it had not grasped the nature of a culture magazine.

“The task of a culture magazine is to arouse debate on important issues. What a grand way to interpret freedom of speech,” Mr Vilkuna added ironically. In the cartoon, the prophet Muhammad is depicted debating the meaning of free speech with a cartoonist.

and The "Prophet" debating the soft secular european on free speech is rather intresting



Ya folks reap what you sew

The War on Democracy in Europe continues

Lets face facts the Brussels Journal often tends to make mountains out of hills. But detailing the real death of democratic process in the EU they tend to be spot on. So I am a tad on the hesitant side to buy into the claim that the EU is part of a plan for the final victory of socialism over liberal democratic capitalism... but it makes some intresting points.

PB: But all these countries that joined the European Union did so voluntarily.

VB: No, they did not. Look at Denmark which voted against the Maastricht treaty twice. Look at Ireland [which voted against the Nice treaty]. Look at many other countries, they are under enormous pressure. It is almost blackmail. Switzerland was forced to vote five times in a referendum. All five times they have rejected it, but who knows what will happen the sixth time, the seventh time. It is always the same thing. It is a trick for idiots. The people have to vote in referendums until the people vote the way that is wanted. Then they have to stop voting. Why stop? Let us continue voting. The European Union is what Americans would call a shotgun marriage.

I'm not sure I tend to buy into the fact a country making a legitimate choice being a choice, but certainly agree with him that on many EU iniatives their are large scale threats and pronouncement of doom upon the populace if they fail to vote the way the EU tells them.

However people voting until they vote the right way does indeed show itself as a halmark of the EU system. And thats whats scary as heck about it to me.

PB: But we have a European Parliament which is chosen by the people.

VB: The European Parliament is elected on the basis of proportional representation, which is not true representation. And what does it vote on? The percentage of fat in yoghurt, that kind of thing. It is ridiculous. It is given the task of the Supreme Soviet. The average MP can speak for six minutes per year in the Chamber. That is not a real parliament.

I don't know where he got the "average MP can speak for 6 minutes" bit but he is dead on that the parliament isn't real. And it isn't real by necessity and by design....

But unelected and unaccountable buercrats -do- run things. and there we have a problem. The Parliament needs to be a check on the Buercrats some how for the EU to be democratic

but now for the WWWWWILLLLDDDDD conspiracy angle

Therefore the only way to withstand this onslaught of wild capitalism (as they called it) was to try to introduce the same socialist goals in all countries at once. Prior to that, the left-wing parties and the Soviet Union had opposed European integration very much because they perceived it as a means to block their socialist goals. From 1985 onwards they completely changed their view. The Soviets came to a conclusion and to an agreement with the left-wing parties that if they worked together they could hijack the whole European project and turn it upside down. Instead of an open market they would turn it into a federal state.

According to the [secret Soviet] documents, 1985-86 is the turning point. I have published most of these documents. You might even find them on the internet. But the conversations they had are really eye opening. For the first time you understand that there is a conspiracy – quite understandable for them, as they were trying to save their political hides.

I'm not sure that I buy the conspiracy angle. But an Angle where the Leftist/Socialist parties decided to make "Europe" their platform to advance their ideas and policies in a way to fight of Neo-Liberalist movements.... I got to say that makes sense. Doesn't have to be a conspiracy at all but rather a political consensus.

Now they may not want to admit this consensus came under the tutilage of moscow but hey... their is nothing wrong with that

However the Speech and the article do point to some good similarities between EUism and Sovietism

It is no accident that the European Parliament, for example, reminds me of the Supreme Soviet. It looks like the Supreme Soviet because it was designed like it. Similary, when you look at the European Commission it looks like the Politburo. I mean it does so exactly, except for the fact that the Commission now has 25 members and the Politburo usually had 13 or 15 members. Apart from that they are exactly the same, unaccountable to anyone, not directly elected by anyone at all. When you look into all this bizarre activity of the European Union with its 80,000 pages of regulations it looks like Gosplan. We used to have an organisation which was planning everything in the economy, to the last nut and bolt, five years in advance. Exactly the same thing is happening in the EU. When you look at the type of EU corruption, it is exactly the Soviet type of corruption, going from top to bottom rather than going from bottom to top.......
Vladimir Bukovsky: I am referrring to structures, to certain ideologies being instilled, to the plans, the direction, the inevitable expansion, the obliteration of nations, which was the purpose of the Soviet Union. Most people do not understand this. They do not know it, but we do because we were raised in the Soviet Union where we had to study the Soviet ideology in school and at university. The ultimate purpose of the Soviet Union was to create a new historic entity, the Soviet people, all around the globe. The same is true in the EU today. They are trying to create a new people. They call this people “Europeans”, whatever that means.

According to Communist doctrine as well as to many forms of Socialist thinking, the state, the national state, is supposed to wither away. In Russia, however, the opposite happened. Instead of withering away the Soviet state became a very powerful state, but the nationalities were obliterated. But when the time of the Soviet collapse came these suppressed feelings of national identity came bouncing back and they nearly destroyed the country. It was so frightening.

So I don't by the conspiracy angle but the comparison is fairly instructive on the War on Democracy going on right now in Europe

Once we bring Democracy to the Middle East I hope we can bring it to Europe

Sick Red Dragon

I tell folks all the time that China, much like the hype of Japan and the Arabs taking over everything is a whole lot of hype. (Also the same with the EU being a dominant power for the ages.). Many many very smart folks however believe the hype.


Here in Foreign Policy and here from Columbia University we see two very smart people laying out points I expressed far less eloquently.


First lets folks on the “Grey Bomb” Scenario. You think it’s just a problem in the west with the massive social welfare infrastructure? Oh no the “Grey Bomb” is coming and coming hard to the PRC to.


Based on United Nations statistics and data provided by the Chinese government, it was estimated in 1987 that in 2000, the population over 60 years old (the retirement age is 60 in urban areas) would number 127 million, or 10.1 percent of the total population. The projection for 2025 was 234 million elderly, or 16.4 percent. According to one Western analyst, projections based on the 1982 census show that if the one-child policy were maintained to the year 2000, 25 percent of China's population would be age 65 or older by the year 2040.


Why is the massive aging population a problem? Well when you reduce the number of young folks who can take the jobs it will mean either A) Massive immigration (which will never happen in china for cultural reasons) of B) Economic collapse.


This is made more problematic by the fact the PRC doesn’t have good population data and this problem could be MUCH MUCH worse


The gaps in the population totals and vital rates for the crisis period 1958-1961 are probably illustrative” (Aird 273). The government needed to make policy based on data that it wanted to suppress from public awareness. Consequently, in 1979, no population count had been staged for fifteen years (Scharping). The People's Republic conducted censuses in 1953, 1964, and 1982. The questions only included age, sex, nationality, and relationship to the head of the house hold. The 1979 Communique, one of the most complete censuses, provided the Chinese population records without Taiwan (Aird). In 1987, the government announced that the fourth national census would take place in 1990 and that there would be one every ten years thereafter.


But the collapse is far more then economic as even the potential to change the problem in 2040 won’t happen because of preferences of births


Here are the startling numbers.


In 1995, there were 1,166 boys born for every girl (Scharping 290). In 1994, there were 1,211; in 1993, there were 1,213. These numbers add up over time, leading to a population of many unmarried men.



Some of this may be solved by importing brides from Chinese communities abroad, some perhaps by marriage to foreigners (which I see from my understanding of Chinese culture as less likely) but in 2014 or so when these kids start becoming of marital age and they don’t find anyone to take as a spouse if they have the freedom to leave china for better waters as our increasingly integrated global economy shows they will. I also don’t know what a mostly bachelor nation of china will do but tons of unmarried men will be very hopeless and I don’t like that as a prospect for our future.


I’ve also seen elsewhere that these kids born of the one child policy generation have no desire to care for their parents which means in the 2010s and the 2020s China will either have to shift economic assets to the geritol economy (rather then butter or guns) which means again we will be seeing a decline in the economy of china assuming nothing like a plague happens to mend these unsupportable population numbers.


But surely their economy is a Juggernaut now right….right?


Well….. lets look at that.

Behind the glowing headlines are fundamental frailties rooted in the Chinese neo-Leninist state. Unlike Maoism, neo-Leninism blends one-party rule and state control of key sectors of the economy with partial market reforms and an end to self-imposed isolation from the world economy. The Maoist state preached egalitarianism and relied on the loyalty of workers and peasants. The neo-Leninist state practices elitism, draws its support from technocrats, the military, and the police, and co-opts new social elites (professionals and private entrepreneurs) and foreign capital—all vilified under Maoism. Neo-Leninism has rendered the ruling Chinese Communist Party more resilient but has also generated self-destructive forces.
To most Western observers, China’s economic success obscures the predatory characteristics of its neo-Leninist state. But Beijing’s brand of authoritarian politics is spawning a dangerous mix of crony capitalism, rampant corruption, and widening inequality. Dreams that the country’s economic liberalization will someday lead to political reform remain distant. Indeed, if current trends continue, China’s political system is more likely to experience decay than democracy. It’s true that China’s recent economic achievements have given the party a new vibrancy. Yet the very policies that the party adopted to generate high economic growth are compounding the political and social ills that threaten its long-term survival.

In other words they are still on the Communist plantation according to this article from Foreign Policy magazine… so lets go more into the nuts and bolts of the problems


The Chinese state remains deeply entrenched in the economy. According to official data for 2003, the state directly accounted for 38 percent of the country’s GDP and employed 85 million people (about one third of the urban workforce). For its part, the formal private sector in urban areas employed only 67 million people. A research report by the financial firm UBS argues that the private sector in China accounts for no more than 30 percent of the economy. These figures are startling even for Asia, where there is a tradition of heavy state involvement in the economy. State-owned enterprises in most Asian countries contribute about 5 percent of GDP. In India, traditionally considered a socialist economy, state-owned firms generate less than 7 percent of GDP.

First of all there is no way the kabillions upon kabillions of dollars in FDI and portfolio investment is going into that 30% private sector of the economy. We hear a lot about the PRC buying up our debt instruments well the funds from those debt instruments along with loans from folks like Bank of America are propping up the building of the ginormous state sector of the economy.


Even is you assume the PRC’s 38% figure is accurate the billions in US capital going to china has to be financing state sector parts of the economy in a big way. And since China has moved toward this paradigm since the 1970s I’d find this the maxim the current government is willing to go to in liberalizing the economy which has state involvement in GDP that would make Sweden pleased does not show a strong economy at all but an economy where the state has a very vested interest in Enron-like inflating of numbers. (look to Sweden as an example and wonder what institutional investors would think there, but China is really doing the same kind of things)

Ok but the 38% figure really isn’t supportable as the article in Foreign policy shows here:

But China’s tentacles are even more securely wrapped around the economy than these figures suggest. First, Beijing continues to own the bulk of capital. In 2003, the state controlled $1.2 trillion worth of capital stock, or 56 percent of the country’s fixed industrial assets. Second, the state remains, as befits a quintessentially Leninist regime, securely in control of the “commanding heights” of the economy: It is either a monopolist or a dominant player in the most important sectors, including financial services, banking, telecommunications, energy, steel, automobiles, natural resources, and transportation. It protects its monopoly profits in these sectors by blocking private domestic firms and foreign companies from entering the market (although in a few sectors, such as steel, telecom, and automobiles, there is competition among state firms). Third, the government maintains tight control over most investment projects through the power to issue long-term bank credit and grant land-use rights.

They control the fixed assets making developing a private economy of scale really impossible. They control who gets the land and they control who gets domestic capital. So realistically foreign interests aren’t dumping all that money in less then half of the fixed industrial assets they simply can’t be dumping the money that way. Again we see Foreign Capital is propping up state interests. If we look at the Automobile sector (which has gotten some coverage in the US recently) they control who gets in the market and who can build. They have their own firms playing the game so why would they allow people to take away from that massive investment? Yet our auto firms have formed partnerships and passed key technologies over to the PRC.

Furthermore Over half the executives in Chinese firms, even those that are on paper shareholder owned are appointed by the regime which makes their performance tied to the Party leadership’s ability to hold power. To keep from rocking the boat these companies cannot act in a way that is capitalist. Yet we are giving them money

Today, Beijing oversees a vast patronage system that secures the loyalty of supporters and allocates privileges to favored groups. The party appoints 81 percent of the chief executives of state-owned enterprises and 56 percent of all senior corporate executives. The corporate reforms implemented since the late 1990s—designed to turn wholly state-owned firms into shareholding companies—haven’t made a dent in patronage. In large- and medium-sized state enterprises (ostensibly converted into shareholding companies, some of which are even traded on overseas stock markets), the Communist Party secretaries and the chairmen of the board were the same person about half the time. In 70 percent of the 6,275 large- and medium-sized state enterprises classified as “corporatized” as of 2001, the members of the party committee were members of the board of directors. All told, 5.3 million party officials—about 8 percent of its total membership and 16 percent of its urban members—held executive positions in state enterprises in 2003, the last year for which figures were available.

This also shows that their corporate policy is designed to maintain political control over the population. Be a good boy and buy into the communist system and you get to manage a plant for us, and ostensibly be part of “capitalism”

But surely you’re saying all this capital can’t be going to bad ends? I mean big companies are smart right? Well not only are big companies rarely effective capitalists there is a poker saying “Don’t send good money after bad” you wouldn’t say this kind of a saying if their wasn’t an urge to do that…to try to make that lost money good and yours again.


The World Bank estimates that, between 1991 and 2000, almost a third of investment decisions in China were misguided. The Chinese central bank’s research shows that politically directed lending was responsible for 60 percent of bad bank loans in 2001–02. The problem persists today. Chinese economic planners revealed in early 2006 that 11 major capital-intensive manufacturing industries were overproducing. For example, the country’s steel industry, the world’s largest, has 116 million tons (or about 30 percent) of excess capacity.


But the government makes those bad loans your saying.


What was it I was saying about private investment can’t be just in private institutions… here is where it comes to roost. If China can in profitable and effective institutions get loans they can funnel those loans to the dead ends of the economic spectrum. Because in a nation of over a billion people massive unemployment is simply impossible to tolerate, and when you are a repressive regime it makes a revolution both bloody and likely.


But what about the record growth you say? Well that’s not the only record the PRC has generated economically.


State enterprises are also miserably unprofitable. In 2003, a boom year, their median rate of return on assets was a measly 1.5 percent. More than 35 percent of state enterprises lose money and 1 in 6 has more debts than assets. China is the only country in history to have simultaneously achieved record economic growth and a record number of nonperforming bank loans.


35% of state enterprises lose money. 1 in 6 has more debts than assets. That’s not a positive sign at all there but the worst is more bank loans are going bad in China then ever in history as they have had unprecedented growth. That shows unquestionably that Capital going to china is going down a very large rathole.


And more on the rathole for a moment…


But China’s politically connected tycoons have cashed in on China’s real estate boom; nearly half of Forbes’ list of the 100 richest individuals in China in 2004 were real estate developers.

Why the focus on Real Estate Developers Larry?


For the first time, homeowners here are learning what it means to have an upside-down mortgage — when the value of a home falls below the amount of debt on the property. Recent home buyers are suing to get their money back. Banks are fretting about a wave of default loans.
"The entire industry is scaling back," said Mu Wijie, a regional manager at Century 21 China, who estimated that 3,000 brokerage offices had closed since spring. Real estate agents, whose phones wouldn't stop ringing a year ago, say their incomes have plunged by two-thirds.
Shanghai's housing slump is only going to worsen and imperil a significant part of the Chinese economy, says Andy Xie, Morgan Stanley's chief Asia economist in Hong Kong.
Although the city's 20 million residents represent less than 2% of China's population of 1.3 billion, Xie says, Shanghai accounts for an astounding 20% of the country's property value. About 1 million homes in Shanghai alone — about half the number of housing starts for the entire United States in 2004 — are under construction.

Over half the Forbes 100 Richest men in China are responsible for Building up property values in China that are now in Shanghai beginning to collapse and lead to a default of loans. Like some form of Bizarro world wealth redistribution money is being taken from the Banks and the people and given to the developers as part of China’s attempt at “Capitalism”

But what is going as an untold story is (to steal from John Edwards) a “Two China’s” problem.


In rural areas, home of China’s poorest citizens, 78 percent of the education budget must be raised from peasants through local taxation and fees, while Beijing provides only 1 percent of the funding for rural education.

In public health, the consequences of misspending are even more severe. Government money, which accounted for 36 percent of all health expenditures in the 1980s, plunged to less than 15 percent by 2000. China has hospitals and equipment, and its per capita spending is higher than comparable developing countries. But these resources are among the most unequally distributed in the world. The World Health Organization rated the fairness of the Chinese healthcare system below all countries except Brazil and Burma. According to China’s own Ministry of Health, two thirds of the population lacks any type of health insurance, and about half of the sick do not seek professional medical treatment at all.

So a cadre of poor people, uneducated and unable to receive health care exists in the periphery of china. If they want to receive any of those things they have to raise taxes on an area where we don’t see Boeing opening a plant and where the chance to make tennis shoes for Wal-Mart won’t be coming any time soon. You combine this with the demographic problems china is facing we see a real risk of serious large scale civil insurrection.


In the Industrial sectors where people have skills that can be bought off people are getting state perks and the chance to “own” a private company –under state supervision- but in the rural areas all they have are building projects and land grabs which aren’t going well.


Big companies are investing in China and very literally flushing money down the toilet. They have to hire people to run the brand for them in China in some industries, or “partner” with the state. This means that State industries are using big business to help them subsidize their massive regime.

If we see in the 2010s or 2020s large scale Chinese militarism or break down of public order untold billions of the money is as good as gone.

And the US will still sit atop the world as the Super-Power who never wanted the job, and whom will not be rested from its dominant position any time soon

This man should still be Senate Majority Leader

I have so say Brother Trent Lott shows why he was a very good Majority Leader in the senate, and I have to wonder if a single birthday wish didn't happen would this country, and this president not be better off.

He basically says "If you threaten to veto us out of hand, I'll vote to over ride your veto"

Sounds like the President needs a lesson in how to tend to congress.

Bond…. Melvin Bond

Daniel Craig Didn’t like guns, couldn’t drive the return of the Aston Martin, Speed Boats made him queasy, didn’t like guns (ok it did deserve repeating), and he’s had some teeth busted up because he screwed up a stunt in a scene. If you’re a Bond fan you have to be disappointed but now in the words of Ron White Daniel Craig is showing just what a “Manly Man” he is

New 007 Craig wanted a healthy glow for the movie, but ended up James Burned — and now can’t stop itching.
A source on the Casino Royale set said: “It’s driving him mad. He constantly wants to scratch. It’s worst when he does a costume change. He is in agony.
“He has been moaning to his assistants that he’s got prickly heat. He is extremely wary of being outside now. But the nature of filming is such that he is out in the heat all day.”
This new James bond movie looks like it is going to be a massive implosion from all the negative hype Craig is raking in.

I can't believe this

I was working on a paper and I heard a idiotic bit of Television with John Fund and some Port Insider trying to paint this all about Islamaphobia.

Ug... Ok lets start off
Singapore is different then the UAE.
Sigapore is different then China
China is different then the UAE

All three of these countries have state have (or in the case of the UAE will have) port companies in this country that are state ran/state owned.

A State Owned company is different then a Private company. And a State owned company that allows some investment is different then a state owned company is owned fully by the government.

This does prove a relevancy as the Coast Guard concerns have shown as the state intrests can through this position impact public security. So a state entity that is not profit driven given these roles becomes a serious question....

Now some of the proposals I am hearing that the company is willing to do I think take care of those issues.

Now China subverts US policy, The UAE has played a role in the past that hasn't been very good for US intrests (today is a different matter but the jury is still out). While the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have not. They have been fairly consistantly behind US political intrests.

So to imply that their is no way to reasonably put the UAE to a different standard is truely foolish and the implication of racism is only going to make opposition calcify

Quotable Plato

"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."

(H/T Standing Out In The Cold)

The Empire Brokeback.

(H/T Gayorbit)

I've Gotten Sucked in

To Pandora which is driven by the Music Genome Project.

I think this should work to give you my Station.

Its good web fun

More confusing OKCupidity

No Nonsense You scored 47% Security, 29% Avoidance, and 47% Anxiousness!

You got to the test page, took one look at how things were supposed to be, and then apparently you decided "well fuck it, I guess I'll just keep going, but I don't want to check any of the answers." Which I guess, sort of sucks, doesn't it? Because now you don't get a response. It's all right though, you can always try it again and get something worthwhile out of it. Or maybe you'd just rather it stay this way. Either way, I'm going to look at you as a success, who just hasn't finishing their succeeding quite yet. The other option, is that your personality is very evenly distributed, you are anxious, avoidant and secure all at the same time, but nothing seems to dominate. I'll say to you what I said to Crazy McCrazyton, who has everything going on, but is so overly stimulated by everything that they BECOME everything, much like you: I can't fathom who you would be, aside from a schizophrenic or someone with multiple personalities, all of whom wanted to come out and take this test at the same time. You're everything, you're nothing, you're the in-between, hell I don't know. I can't tell you what you should do, because truthfully? You shouldn't exist. You know that Ice Cream by Ben and Jerry's, the "Totally Twisted" or whatever? The kind that has carmel bits and hazelnuts and fudge ripples and raspberry swirls and white chocolate pieces and cookie crumbles and shiny pennies? Yeah, that's you. You are so everything that you can't be anything which...kind of makes you nothing, doesn't it? I don't know what you're on, but I want some. I can't give you too much advice, other than seek out someone either exactly like you, or of a Secure attachment style, because no one else is going to be able to put up with what's going on inside your head, believe me. The thing is, you belong either with someone on the opposite end of the spectrum and are evenly distributed but HIGH on all the factors, or someone more secure than you. It's a fine line, a very fine one. You're not completely insane, I don't believe that for a second, but you're not all-together either. You're just unpredictable and unable to come up with a dominant way of appreciating the world. I think it makes you either a fine, fine candidate for complete and total normalcy, OR as a professor of mine likes to say...you belong in the boobie hatch.

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 28% on Security You scored higher than 28% on Avoidance You scored higher than 53% on Anxiousness

Link: The Sullivan Attachment Style Test written by pretentiaahoy on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Time boys and girls for double speak.

Double speak time on the Palestinian implosion post elections of Hamas. I will show what the Washington Post says and then put out the real statement.

In a Feb. 25 letter addressed to senior diplomats from Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations, Wolfensohn said Israel's decision to withhold the sales tax and customs fees it collects for the Palestinian Authority has pushed the caretaker government to the brink of insolvency.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah movement currently runs the government. But that will change in a few weeks when Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, forms the next cabinet following its victory in parliamentary elections.

Wolfensohn, a former World Bank president, said the Palestinian Authority needs $60 million to $80 million by the first week of March to pay 150,000 civil service employees and trainees, nearly half of them in the security forces. The European Commission, the executive body of the EU, agreed Monday to provide $144 million to the Palestinian Authority, designating most of it for social programs and energy bills. About $20 million could be used for salaries.

So the Implosion is not so much about Hamas but is really about the bankruptcy of Fatah in their governance of the Palestinian Authority. These same kind of problems came out during the Era of Arafat and again the threat of decay into anarchy and chaos was the big concern.

Hamas though their current funding mechanisms can fund an entire new system so this isn't an issue of money what this is about is a way to bring international support to Hamas.

Don't believe me?

The Quartet agreed Jan. 30 to continue financing the caretaker government to strengthen Abbas, who has called on Hamas to pursue a negotiated peace with Israel based on a two-state solution to the conflict. But Wolfensohn, the Quartet's special envoy here, warned that Israel and the United States are pursuing policies at odds with that position by restricting vital funding before Hamas installs its cabinet. That is due to happen within the next month.

So a Hamas government that says we won't make or follow up with any agreement until Israel gives us the Pre-1967 boundries and Jerusalem is not threatening the two state solution that has been built up. But keeping Hamas from getting foriegn funds some how -IS-

They don't take concern when Fatah runs the money into a giant rathole.They threaten the US and Israel for saying they won't fund a government that is going to refuse to follow any treaties they agree to.

So once again.... Double Standard for Israel
So once again.... Double Standard for Islamic Radicals.

Ok Now I am confused.....

The Schnitt Show my prefered Talk Radio choice (especially since it is on the only AM station I ger well since my Attena busted) has offered me a new thing on this Dubai ports deal to say "Hey wait a minute"

"There are many intelligence gaps, concerning the potential for DPW or P&O assets to support terrorist operations, that precludes an overall threat assessment of the potential" merger," an undated Coast Guard intelligence assessment says.

"The breadth of the intelligence gaps also infer potential unknown threats against a large number of potential vulnerabilities," the document says.

The Coast Guard questioned this deal on Security measures when it first came out. And based on their comment I have to think their is some kind of deal or assurance in writing to cover the coasties concerns..... regard this poor answer

"Any time there's a new operator in a port our concern would be that that operator has complied with the (International Ship and Port Facility Security) ISPS code overseas and we just want to take a look at their track record," Cmdr. Jeff Carter, Coast Guard spokesman, said at the time. "And then we would look forward to working with them in the future ensuring they complied with all applicable regulations and international agreements," he added.

This response is a total non answer. I don't mind the Coasties having some side deal or private assurance that things are cool but I'd prefer them to you know say that. "The Authorities from DPW have done a very good job in answering our previous concerns"

why is that so hard people?

And from the "Not news Department"

Like some old B movie I present to you "Bill Clinton Needs Interns"

His spokesman said, "I'm not sure why it's surprising that President Clinton's multimillion dollar foundation - that among many other accomplishments provides AIDS treatment drugs to over 250,000 people around the world - would have interns."

#1) Bill and Hill seem to employ the same stupid people

making a serious response to this kind of news story is the wrong answer but...

#2)Of course Bill would have interns

I mean seriously

more online quizybunk

How evil are you?

Ok I am a believer

I posted an earlier rebuttal to my pet theory that Fred Phelps is a psychopathic nutjob.

Well after this post on Fark I have to say I'm convinced now that this poster's gut reporter instinct is dead on.

2006-02-27 01:17:22 PM El_Camino_SS

Maneck: El_Camino_SS should publish that somewhere so idiots from Fark can link to that for the real deal. Maybe someone at CNN will notice it to and realize they've been making an ass of themselves by issuing the reports on the protests that they have been. Caminno's is the correct summary of Phelp's motives and methods. The article linked here is crap.


*Poof*
Did someone call me?

Thank you for reposting me along the way LandOfChocolate. I am glad that someone is seeing the light of day here.

How do I know that Fred Phelps is suing people? I can tell you I just have too much experience around him. I am a journalist in Nashville, TN, and work at a television station that works the Ft. Campbell area. As a television photographer and journalist, I have been trained in all of the rules of private property, verbal conversation, what is legal and what is not legal, etc. (what you can and cannot say, what you can get away with). Honestly, in the last few months, I have seen waaay too much of Mr. Phelps and his crew. Since the war began, I believe they think this is the moneymaking source of a lifetime.

So how am I sure? After the third run in, and not one slip, not one piece of paperwork out of line, I knew something was fishy. My newsman skepticism left me with the idea later that something was more phishy than fishy.
I will tell you where I got this truth about Phelps. I looked him in the eye. I saw that he was way too calm and collected for what he looked like in the media. I noticed that he never made personal statements against a person, which is verbal assault, and an out against a lawsuit. Also, for a religious fanatic, a group of people who pride themselves on personal attacks, he was running a protest so terribly by the books that I was impressed by it. He will not bait a person, ever. He will not make personal attacks. He will make blanket statements. He will look at a person in the crowd that he thinks is gay, walk over to his stack of signs, pull out the appropriate, well designed, easily read, laminated bright board, and hold it up and loudly proclaim that "gays are going to hell" or some such nonsense, and make eye contact, but he will never cross the line of telling that person that they're going to hell. That would be the part that would screw up the lawsuit. He just wants to get them after him, but wants to appear utterly blameless for damages.

They run too tight of a ship to slip up, and at that point, I realized that the objective of the group was not anything religious at all. Someone told me along the way that they were all turned into lawyers after he got disbarred. After that, the stench was just too intense for me. He makes money off of this. He does this so much he has everyone around him do the legal legwork so he doesn't have to pay anyone else.

The last time confirmed everything I suspected about them.
A few weeks later, I saw them again (they LOVE to come to big name funerals) and after I saw the laminated signs change for the audience, I knew EXACTLY what they were doing.

His 'crew' isn't a 'church' as you and I would know. The 'church' are more of a motley crew of family members. Some of them are six year old children that are doing what they're told. I have spoken to them, and they have a lawyers sensibility on them on how they speak to the public. They never make personal attacks. They never verbally assault anyone. For a group of people that are accusing damn near every group of people around them for going to hell, wouldn't that seem odd to you? Do you know any religious fanatics that don't make personal attacks? I don't.

They also don't stick around after the cameras roll. They have an itenerary like a semi truck driver. For them to get cleared for all of these press event protests they're doing, then they have to have someone at home doing all of the setup. For you to get the press clearances by the prescribed times? That's a lot of professional legwork. I should know, I've coordinated a newsrooms credentials when the President comes to town, and that's a lot of phone calls and faxes.

They probably file a load of civil rights violation lawsuits. If a police department looks them up and says, "we're denying your protest right," BOOYah. They just got to sue a police department for the very thing that Americans can't stand, rights violation. I am assuming that this is where they get almost all of their money.

See my previous post. Their beliefs are so riddled with inconsistency. The 'real inconsistency' is that every position that contradicts every other of their beliefs is designed to maximize the number of people that they offend. You cannot be saved to them. You are evil in their beliefs, no matter who you are, and God will punish you like the evil gays/soldiers/innocent people/people who love America/people who are black/everyone else we can think of.

Here's the proof. Who in the world makes a poster that says, "Thank God for IEDs" (Improvised Explosive Devices, aka Roadside Bombs). They are saying God is with the terrorists. Then they say God hates you. And homosexuals. Then when they see you looking patriotic with your American flag shirt, they point the sign at you and say, "Americans are going to hell for supporting this country!" and look you in the eye. NOTICE THOUGH, they never say, "You're going to hell." (That would give a judge an out to deny them their claim.)

Oh, I know I should say this to CNN. CNN, and a lot of people read fark.

Trust me, I am not the only person that thought that Phelps was a faker. I just happen to be the only one on Fark right now.

Even More reason not to fear the Hildabeast

When Karl Rove the Man-Child Genius Guru of the President makes comments about your political viability in elections their are plenty of ways to handle it. The best way, if a reporter asked, would be to laugh and say "that's very intresting but right now I am focused on being the best senator for the people of New York."

That is a good way and shows the kind of political skill needed to be a successful national caliber canidate

THIS however is how Hillary decided to do it.

ALBANY, N.Y. _ Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that President Bush's chief political strategist Karl Rove "spends a lot of time obsessing about me."

First of all lets talk about Karl Rove. Karl Rove is a dumpy guy in glasses with thinning hair. Hillary Clinton is viewed as a very "glamorous" figure. So really by her choice of wording the Senator from New York tried to do what lots of "cool" girls in high school did to that dumpy kid with glasses who had a crush on them. Imply they are a creepy stalker.

This is the message she is trying to send. She is the Hot Cheerleader and he is the President of the school's Klingon club.

The former first lady and potential presidential contender was reacting during a radio interview to a new book quoting Karl Rove as saying she will be the 2008 Democratic nominee for president,

You see now again its a radio interview, she could have brushed the comment off with a laugh or a joke. But sadly she did not choose wisely.

"He spends more time thinking about my political future than I do," Clinton said, noting that Rove and other White House aides have met regularly with her possible opponents in November's 2006 Senate race.

Ok. You are the hotest name in the U.S Senate (for good or for ill) and You are in a state that has re-elected a Republican governor, and not to long ago had a Republican Senator. Hillary wouldn't have just ten years ago been off baking cookies when Bill and Dick Morris would work on some one in a reverse situation...So here Hillary is again trying to seel the Mayter "They Obsess over me", "They are out to get me", "They are conspiring against me." while on this radio show she may have thought it was a good moment to toss some read meat to the base it was simply stupid.

The junior Senator from New York said she believed Rove, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman and other Republicans are focusing on her to divert attention from Republican problems as the 2006 congressional elections approach.

If Hillary Clinton believes that these folks are doing that she is simply delusional. I didn't see "Hillary lied, people died" slogans running but I did see them for Bush. She is trying to equate herself as a totemic standard of her party in the same way the President is for his. So here we see the egoism and personification which will make the woman lose and lose bad in 08 if she is foolish enough to run.

"Karl Rove is a brilliant strategist. So, if I were thinking about this," Clinton told WROW-AM radio in Albany, "I'd say why are they spending so much time talking about me?"

His being a Brilliant Strategist i would consider a matter of intense debate. However it is all about them focusing on me, the collective vs the singular.

"What they're hoping is that all of their missteps, which are now numbering in the hundreds, are going to somehow be overlooked because people, instead of focusing on the '06 election, will jump ahead and think about the next one," Clinton said.

Remember when the Time expose came out about Kerry.... how he was just focusing on the President's missteps and trying to not make any of his own was his big unifying Strategy back in 2004. You see here that the Democrat who is by Karl Rove and many foolish people in the conventional wisdom is their "Standard Bearer" pulling the same line.

The reality tends to be more like an episode of the simpsons where Bart was trying to get a job with Krusty and Krusty said "what have you done for me lately" Krusty pushed off the litany of things he had done in the run of episodes before but instead was placated with the Danish Bart just brought him. The election in 2006 isn't going to be won in 2000-2005, its going to be won on the issues running into November. Its going to be about the Danish.

Something intresting I saw in the Fark forums

I cannot attest to how truthful this is, but it sure makes a heck of a story. and a heck of a plausable one

2006-02-27 12:04:38 PM LandOfChocolate

I'll repeat what El_Camino_SS posted in another thread:



Fred Phelps does not believe what he is doing. This is a scam.

It's a business. They travel the country, set up wesites telling you exactly when they'll be there, and using the most inflammatory statements all over the place, just to get someone to violate their rights for profit. Then they sue the military, the police force that was to protect them, and everyone that is around them for money. This is a sham, and it is a trap to get people sued. Every member of his family is an attorney. Phelps does not break the law. What he does is try to make you break the law by trying to punch your sensibilities about everything you hold dear, and then sue you and everyone municipality around him to the max.

This is a scam.

Whether he believes his posters or not is irrelevent.
He's using this as a moneymaking scheme.
Lay one finger on him, do one thing that violates him, and he will sue you, and more importantly, the city, the police department, the US Military, and any private property owner he happens to be standing on to make money off of it.

Let's look at the ways he's trying to get you up in a tizzy to violate his civil rights for profit:
-He says G-d Hates Fags, G-d hates the US Govt, that G-d hates the US Military, G-d Hates you, and G-d justifies the killing of others.
Phelps knows that saying 'G-d' and 'Hate' in the same sentence gets people worked up. He knows that. He knows that people have a knee jerk reaction to that.
-He says that the US Govt and the United States are evil.
This is another hot button with people who love their country. It is intentional. It is designed to make you take a swing at him. He wants 50k USD from you. He wants a powerball winner to swing at him so he gets 100 million dollars. It's that simple.
-He goes after homosexuals, he goes after people who are making sacrifices. Phelps intentionally targets people that are being victimized, or good people doing their jobs to create more outrage. He kicks people when they're down. He does that so someone will come up and defend them. Then he will sue you.
-His boards are laminated on hardwood, because he pulls them out of trucks at least five times a week. He also puts them in bright colors for attention, and makes absolutely sure that you can read them at all time. He's phishing you. Everyone must know that.

The most telling tale about all of Phelp's behavior is the schedule he keeps, and the company he keeps as well. The parties sometimes split up and go to two seperate state funerals to maximize the profitability of them. There are, at maximum, twelve members to the party. They never stay more than thirty minutes (I assume they realize that someone will do something to them the MOMENT they come out of the vans, and really, after that, they get their camera shots to cause the outrage for the next stop, and then they move on) to maximize their profits, because time is money, and really, they're not interested in the message, because they're just interested in the lawsuit.

See? They don't believe this stuff. If they did, they wouldn't have come to Coretta Scott King's funeral. Because in their doctrine, they don't believe that G-d hates black people who tried to promote Christianity. So why were they there? They were there to make a buck when someone slipped up. They were there to petition the police department for a right to protest, and if they didn't get it, take them to court over it.

Basically, Phelps is playing the Ken Lay, Karl Rove, "Smartest Man in the Room" game where he is willing to do anything (if it be lying or stealing, or telling you God hates you) to make himself rich and powerful. This is his scheme, and admittedly, it's clever, but just downright evil to promote so much hatred in the world.

Tell all your friends about this.
This man is a con artist, and he's not a man of religion whatsoever.

After all, he makes everyone around him a lawyer.
That should tell you right now he is not anything

Ok....

Now, I've never been responsible for Deflowering some one and my list of sex partner is filled with far more sexual experience then I had before or since....but this...this here I just don't get.

Like a virgin...
Joanna Walters
Women are having surgery to rejuvenate their love lives
When Jeanette Yarborough decided to give her husband a gift for their seventeenth wedding anniversary she wanted it to be special. Really special. She decided that conventional treats such as Mediterranean cruises, gold watches, cars, a murder-mystery weekend, or even a boob job just weren’t going to cut it. She gave him something much more personal — and painful. Her virginity.

Well, sort of. Mrs Yarborough paid $5,000 (£2,860) to a cosmetic surgeon to stitch her hymen back together so she could “lose her virginity” all over again and her husband would have that thrilling conquest at the grand age of 40.

What? some one explain this to me... Is it really that good?

But I can see (for some women) a reasoning behind this which I can at least for Psychological health reasons say "Ok Sure" but for the lifestyle/surprise the hubby reason I am still scratching my head

“I have affluent upper-class ladies coming in from Manhattan, getting ready for a second-honeymoon cruise or something like that. Or some women had a disappointing time the first time they were deflowered and now they have found someone special they would really like to give it up to,”

Say you were raped to lose your virginity or had creepy uncle sex... Ok I can see that as a good use of this surgery. But beyond that I am confused.

But really, isn't virginity more then just a flap of flesh? Isn't virginity about the awkward not knowing and learning your body and some one elses body for the first time? Isn't this really just a pale immitation?

or am I alone in this

If this bit-o-the-drudge is true

Then I am smarter then Karl Rove.

But Rove added that the “hard-driving” Clinton will easily vanquish Democratic primary rivals like New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, who are merely “preening for the vice presidential slot.”

Ok here is what I'd like to call Ignorance of History

in 1980 Jimmy "Peanut man" Carter was running from the left end of his party and lost but we'll leave jimmy on the side because he is going to prove my point later.

In 1984 we got us some Walter Mondale that was shades of Carter in 80. In 1988 we got us some Michael Dukakis

what did we get in 1992 Bill "New Democrat" Clinton.

Ok so lets go back to 1968

Much like Jimmy in 76 the scion of the unpopular Democratic administration lost

in 72 we get Whacky McGovern.

what do we get in 76 a more moderate outsider Jimmy Carter.

Back further you say? Why sure

in 52 Democrats lose from FDR exhaustion
they try to repeat the same thing in 56
in 1960 we have John "new blood" kennedy who was not a pure FDR clone.

So what we have (typically) Is the democrats putting up the wrong canidate for a series of elections then getting smart.

Now while 1960 was Richard nixon's to lose, 1976 was the Democrats to lose and they pushed forward an outsider. 1992 was an impossible task but the Democrats had retooled and put forward the right canidate.

Dismissing Hillary implies the Democrats don't (in the words of Glen Beck) "Get It" and while I can make the case that right now they don't "Get It" i sure as heck can't make that case for 2008.

However I am glad to see once again proof I seem to be more politically savy then the President

“She is a smart person, and obviously has got a lot of experience,” the president said in an exclusive interview for the book STRATEGERY, which is being published Monday. “It is helpful, to a certain extent, to have seen the presidency and presidential campaigns firsthand.”

Oh.... So then you want to tell us about the wonders of the Gary Hart administration? Or the Wonders of the John Kerry administration

oh those people who had either directly (Gary hart) or through campaign managment (John Kerry) seen the nuts and bolts of Presidential campaigns didn't do well? Oh how about Joe Lieberman's win in the 2004 Presidential primary....Oh wait that didn't happen. Well maybe we can talk about the Nixon and Gore administrations...Oh wait none of those either.

But she has experience of..being a Senator for Six years and voting the Party line on pretty much every issue... good experience there. Oh and being opposed to the issues and campaign strategy style that got her husband elected President.

But more of my making fun of Karl Rove....

“She is the dominant player on their side of the slate,” Rove said of Clinton. “Anybody who thinks that she’s not going to be the candidate is kidding themselves.”

so she is the dominant fundraiser.......and that means...oh yeah NOTHING.

I could argue that Ted Kennedy is the dominant player because of his influence on Party positions in the Senate but Jabba the Kennedy isn't going to be running. Just because some one is the cash register that doesn't mean they will win. if thats the case Howard Dean would have surged to victory in 04...

I agree with Rove's pick on the 06 elections and *IF* Hillary proves me wrong and wins the nod in 08 there is no way she'll be sitting in the West Wing in 09

RINO SIGHTINGS have come

And I have to agree

Is it March yet?

Weird from Wikipedia

The belief in vampires of plant origin occurs among Gs. [Gypsies] who belong to the Mosl. faith in KM [Kosovo-Metohija]. According to them there are only two plants which are regarded as likely to turn into vampires: pumpkins of every kind and water-melons. And the change takes place when they are 'fighting one another.' In Podrima and Prizrenski Podgor they consider this transformation occurs if these vegetables have been kept for more than ten days:

More tales on Vampire Plants (which I can't make up if i tried folks) on Wikipedia

Over on aTypical Joe

a new form of online personality test has come up so of course I had to go and take it. (thanks for the H/t)

So on to my Results.

You are an Animated Inventor.
About You
You are an Inventor
#

Your imagination, self-reliance, openness to new things, and appreciation for utility combine to make you an INVENTOR.
#

You have the confidence to make your visions into reality, and you are willing to consider many alternatives to get that done.
#

The full spectrum of possibilities in the world intrigues you—you're not limited by pre-conceived notions of how things should be.
#

Problem-solving is a specialty of yours, owing to your persistence, curiosity, and understanding of how things work.
#

Your vision allows you to identify what's missing from a given situation, and your creativity allows you to fill in the gaps.
#

Your awareness of how things function gives you the ability to come up with new uses for common objects.
#

It is more interesting for you to pursue excitement than it is to get caught up in a routine.
#

Although understanding details is not difficult for you, you specialize in seeing the bigger picture and don't get caught up in specifics.
#

You tend to more proactive than reactive—you don't just wait for things to come to you.
#

You do your own thing when it comes to clothing, guided more by practical concerns than by other people's notions of style.

You are Animated
#

You are outgoing, comfortable with others, and up for anything, which makes you ANIMATED.
#

Some people find crowds and parties exhausting, but not you! You are energized by spending time with others, and are able to be yourself in many situations.
#

Sometimes it is hard for you to understand why others feel the way they do, but that doesn't stop you from trusting them or having faith that they are good people.
#

You know the world is complicated and that there is often more than one side to a story, so you are careful not to make judgments about others too hastily.
#

You would rather experience the world than sit back and observe it—you are not one to sit on the sidelines.
#

You are an independent thinker and don't get too worried about how others might perceive you—you are not self-conscious about being the active, engaged person that you are.
#

Although you have a keen understanding of different people's life circumstances, you occasionally have trouble seeing why people get so upset and emotional about things—they should just lighten up and have fun!
#

In addition to having faith in the world, you have faith in the people around you—you trust others to do the right thing and to be honest.

where I disagree with the test

It places my Empathy very low (20)



but i encourage you to go take a look at the site yourself

take a look at it yourself


My Personal Dna Report

see my test results and do your own

It's Peanutbutter Jelly Time

Ms. Katherine does it again....

To those of you out there who have read my blog or know me know I don't like Katherine Harris. And unlike you kids out there it has nothing to do with the 2000 election. I only once voted for the woman, and thats because I knew the son of her opponent got away with being a stoner because of his dad's political connections. And I regret it ever since.

But as she has a long history of Ms. Katherine is sitting down with folks who are violating campaign finance laws.

It's not the first time the Longboat Key Republican has had to defend herself for accepting illegal contributions from a company. In 1994, while running for the state senate, Harris collected $30,000 from a Sarasota company called Riscorp which, like MZM, was investigated for violating campaign laws.
....
Even though Harris knew questions were being raised about MZM's donations during the summer of 2005, she didn't refund the money right away. Instead, she offered to give refunds to coerced donors. No one asked for their money back, so Harris held on to the funds.

It wasn't until two weeks ago that Harris rid herself of the money, donating the nearly 2-year-old donations to charity.
....
On Friday, Wade admitted in federal court to bribing U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., with cash and gifts in return for help in winning government contracts. Cunningham, who campaigned for Harris in Sarasota months after MZM's donations, resigned from Congress three months ago.

Wade also admitted that much of the campaign money he sent Harris and U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., was raised illegally by a method called "straw contributing."

But for those of you who know Ms. Katherine like those of us from Sarasota have gotten to know her, she tends to ignore little things like campaign laws when they could actually limit her ability to win elections.

I look forward to seeing here out of office in 2006.

History still is being written.

As I like to tell folks Human history takes a while to be written. As people say right now "Saddam Didn't have weapons of mass destruction." I just shake me head. I do so because challenges to the dominant view of a history keep coming and keep being debated in an organic manner. So I went over to swimming against the red tide and found this tidbit to help show the point.

The 90-minute film, Rendezvous with Death, features an interview with Oscar Marino, a former agent of the Cuban G2 secret service, who says he knew before the assassination in November 1963 that Lee Harvey Oswald -- Kennedy's killer -- had been picked by his colleagues to do the job.

''He offered to kill Kennedy, and we used him to do this,'' Marino says during the film, made by Wilfried Huismann, a prize-winning German director.

Marino claims that Oswald, a Communist who lived in the Soviet Union for three years, was identified to Cuba by the Russian KGB secret service.

In Havana, the official Granma newspaper Friday dismissed the documentary's claim, saying it was the latest chapter in the long history of efforts ``to annihilate the Cuban revolution.''

A Cuban involvement is one of the dozens of conspiracy theories that have long surrounded the JFK assassination. The Warren Commission concluded that Oswald acted alone.

Now while this isn't the last nail in the coffin and becomes a possible foray into tin-hat land Swimming against the red tide pulls up two additional claims from right wing bomb throwers.

Alexander Haig, then a military adviser to President Johnson, went on camera to say that LBJ believed Cuba was responsible, but he believed that if the evidence came out of a Castro link to the Kennedy murder, it would turn the country to the right politically, and keep the Democrats out of power for years to come. Added Haig: "He (Johnson) said 'we must simply not allow the American people to believe Fidel Castro could have killed our president.'"

knowing what I know about LBJ I find this claim very difficult. however the second bomb thrower claim seems far more credible to me.

“After Kennedy's death on Nov. 22, 1963,” Huismann continued, “[President] Lyndon B. Johnson found out that the US had a secret, illegal murder program focused on Fidel Castro. He hadn't been informed before that.”

“He (Johnson) knew that Castro knew, and he was afraid that the discovery of these mutual assassination attempts could force him to carry out an invasion of Cuba, which he believed could result in a third -- nuclear -- world war. And as a conservative pragmatist, he (Johnson) decided within a few hours, in agreement with Robert Kennedy, to drop the whole thing and to ban FBI and CIA officials from pursuing the trail leading to Cuba,” said Huismann.

I could see LBJ dropping pursuit of a possible cuba connection if it would have lead to a third world war.

was that the case? I can't say but the History is still being written.

some okcupidity

the Adventurer Test finished!

you chose AX - your Enneagram type is SEVEN. "I am happy and open to new things" Adventurers are energetic, lively, and optimistic. They want to contribute to the world. How to Get Along with Me Give me companionship, affection, and freedom. Engage with me in stimulating conversation and laughter. Appreciate my grand visions and listen to my stories. Don't try to change my style. Accept me the way I am. Be responsible for youself. I dislike clingy or needy people. Don't tell me what to do. What I Like About Being a Seven being optimistic and not letting life's troubles get me down being spontaneous and free-spirited being outspoken and outrageous. It's part of the fun. being generous and trying to make the world a better place having the guts to take risks and to try exciting adventures having such varied interests and abilities What's Hard About Being a Seven not having enough time to do all the things I want not completing things I start not being able to profit from the benefits that come from specializing; not making a commitment to a career having a tendency to be ungrounded; getting lost in plans or fantasies feeling confined when I'm in a one-to-one relationship Sevens as Children Often are action oriented and adventuresome drum up excitement prefer being with other children to being alone finesse their way around adults dream of the freedom they'll have when they grow up Sevens as Parents are often enthusiastic and generous want their children to be exposed to many adventures in life may be too busy with their own activities to be attentive Renee Baron & Elizabeth Wagele The Enneagram Made Easy Discover the 9 Types of People HarperSanFrancisco, 1994, 161 pages You liked the test? so please RATE it :-) You are not completely happy with the result?! You chose AX Would you rather have chosen: BX (NINE) CX (TWO) AY (EIGHT) AZ (THREE)

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 71% on ABC You scored higher than 28% on XYZ

Link: The Quick and Painless ENNEAGRAM Test written by felk on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

thanks to my buddy Rene

This amuses me

Those of you who may have read my blog once or twice or who know me know that I am not a fan of Katherine Harris. Well the National Journal has (thanks Ken) shown me that relative to the other members of the House she doesn't seem all that conservative.

Harris, Katherine, R-Fla.-13 34.2(percentage of the US house she is more Liberal then) 65.8(Percentage of the US house she is more conservative then)

this puts her just a little bit above the middle tier of the list.

Hey if it made John Kerry a liberal in 2004, this National Journal rating makes her a moderate.... and shows that the "elite" of the conservative movement in congress isn't terribly conservative

Dean Esmay takes us to outer space

With this look at a fascinating New Scientist article

Astronomers searching for advanced life beyond Earth should focus their attention around beta CVn, a binary star roughly 26 light years away that resembles our Sun.

The recommendation comes from a shortlist of likely life-bearing systems compiled by Margaret Turnbull, at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in St Louis, Missouri, US.

She adds that researchers looking for any kind of life – including basic forms that could not send communications to Earth – should take a particularly close look around another star, epsilon Indi A.

Both of the stars share similar traits, Turnbull says: "They're mature, very stable, calm stars. They're stars that are acting like they're taking care of someone."

This is the kind of neat science fans of Dean's world have come to expect from him.

Well folks....

Frank William Abagnale was able to pass the Bar without a law school education, but who didn't pass the bar it seems? the Deputy G.C. for New York Life Insurance company.

Law.com
N.Y. Life Insurance Deputy GC Resigns due to Lack of Law License
Wednesday February 22, 3:01 am ET
Anthony Lin, New York Law Journal

A senior in-house lawyer at the New York Life Insurance Co. has resigned after the company discovered in recent weeks that he had never been licensed to practice law.

Michael A. Watson, 44, first joined the insurance giant in 1996 and had been promoted last July to first vice president and deputy general counsel. One of five deputies, he was responsible for the unit of the company's legal department focused on investments, mergers and acquisitions and financial transactions.

He was able to make it for ten years until he finally became a VP. New York life declines to mention how he got exposed, which lead to his resignation.

Unlicensed lawyers have been a periodic source of embarrassment for law firms, corporations and government agencies around the nation. Some of those who practice without being admitted have failed the bar exam. In addition to passing the bar exam, lawyers seeking to be admitted in New York must also submit affidavits from previous legal employers and be interviewed by a character and fitness committee.

he had been gainfully employed at another firm so that can't have been it. SO he had the Bar exam and the Character and fitness committee

If you don't know me

You don't know I am a big fan of Scotch Whiskey. Its really good stuff. Well I found this story about my favorite Scotch region which opened up my thoughts to blog it with this choice quote.

“To be honest I’m just hoping the distillery doesn’t explode.”

The Managing director said.... so my love of Islay scotch, along with my love of things that may explode. its win win so lets go on with the story....

Islay distillery to revive world’s ‘most potent’ single malt whisky


By Jenifer Johnston


The world’s “most alcoholic single malt whisky” looks set to be created tomorrow at an Islay distillery.

The usquebaugh-baul blend will be at least a senses-stunning 92% alcohol and possibly as high as 94%, and comes from an ancient island recipe in which a single malt is quadruple distilled.

Bruichladdich, the firm behind the “whisky adventure”, have been working on the project for months. Mark Reynier, managing director of the firm, said: “To be honest I’m just hoping the distillery doesn’t explode.”

Reynier and Bruichladdich’s master distiller Jim McEwan have been fascinated with the idea of producing a limited run of usquebaugh-baul since reading about the whisky in a historic travelogue.

ten years from now... I'll be buying one.

Some times religous conservatives confuse me...

I tend to read "GetReligion" for a dose of all things religously conservative and Ankle Biting Pundits for the occassional Pat Hynes moment of religous conservative Zen. So I am surprised that when a movie that was marketed to Religous blacks hits #1 in the country they aren't anywhere on the issue. and with a respectable 10 million dollars to.

What many folks don't stress in the Tyler Perry movies is they are religously themed for the black community. They are based on a series of plays which teach moral values that Tyler Perry wrote. Who did I have to hear this was a religously themed film...20/20 was where I had to find this out.

Now I know what you may be thinking.... am I saying that these religous conservative voices don't care about Black people? If you think that lets dial it back for a moment and look at the type of movies (*for good or for ill*) The Religous Conservative audience focuses on.

They focus on those films that have a controversy. Brokeback Mountain (ummm DUH), The Passion of the Christ (How dare they not like a movie about jesus and claim it is anti-semetic), That movie about the missionaries in ecuador (how dare they cast a homosexual -activist- as a christian missionary)

Now what do the Religous values folks want? They want movies that touch their moral-religous-social values that don't suck. They want values, but they want it to be entertaining. This is also why they have tried to tame the beast of popular culture. It isn't so much that they want will and grace to be less gay, its that they want a common bit of cultural currency they can trade with fellow folks that respects their values.

The Tyler Perry movies while aimed for the black audience along the same track as other more religous movies it provides something we can relate to. It brings humor and family friendly entertainment with the message.

So it comes down to it that the Religous Conservatives in a political sense want to channel the rage of an audience, that just want good tv shows and movies that they can share with their heathen neighbors and co-workers. Thats why you won't see Pat Robertson or Gary Bauer selling Tyler Perrry. Not because they don't like black folks but because Tyler Perry means they will lose power.

So if you want to banish Pat Robertson from the American landscape... Don't watch Brokeback Mountain but instead go see Madea's Family Reunion.

RIP DON KNOTTS

Don Knotts of Fame as Barney Fife, Mr. Furley, and other bits of comedy greatness has died.

It has come.....

For months and Months our Boy Loud Howard and the Democratic leaders have talked about their "Contract with America" well this is ( i think) their first release of stuff in it and well... it leaves a lot to be desired.

* A raise in the federal minimum wage;
* "Real" stem cell research;
* A balanced federal budget;
* Ethics legislation;
* No selling of public lands "for corporate benefits."

My first over all question the months and months of delays in releasing this document and this is it?

so lets look at that

#1) Minimum Wage
as we should all know ( I do believe I covered this point before)that the minimum wage is not the sole form of support for any family. The last stats i saw from the Clinton administration era that most minimum wage dollars go to households with 40,000 dollars a year or more in income. And of course it is very difficult to get a job that pays minimum wage any more. The minimum wage here in florida is 6 dollars and some change and you'd be very hard pressed to find a job that starts at it ( they do exist.) I can much more easily find a job at 7 dollars an hour. The stats also show almost no one is staying at minimum wage for more then a years time.
#2) "real" Stem Cell Research
You have places like California and Illinois dumping money down this research rathole(and for the moment until large scale mass production can happen -it is a rathole-). Its promoting cloning, yes stem cell research is cloning, through the back door. Its a mess and more federal funding down a rathole of research is something we don't need.
#3)"A balanced federal budget" and here is the problem the Democrats own a part of the pork barrell as well. The republicans can sell them just as much as pigs at the slop on this to.
#4)Ethics legislation here are the problems. Much like the balanced budget mantra they own as much of the problem, and as much of the solution as the republicans do.
#5) No selling of land for corperate benifits. Here comes the problem with that. Look at the national energy crisis. If this is sold in the National Energy meets National security crossroads this will be a milstone around the democrats neck.

Dean in fact conceeds my point 3 and 4 during this speech in Aspen

"But there has to be a clear difference" between Democrats and Republicans, he said.

Later, during the question-and-answer session, he said, "If you want to win elections you have to be different from the other guy."

while he speaks to emulate the Gingrich revolution with this here is another problem

Gingrich was on National TV on the capitol steps when he rolled the contract out.

Dean went to Aspen.

One strategy is a winner, and one is a loser

Wait a minute....

Ok I am confused here. What Dubai Ports world is going to be doing isn't an issue of security. It doesn't handle security. I bought into that description....but now I am not so sure.

By TED BRIDIS
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Homeland Security Department objected at first to a United Arab Emirates company's taking over significant operations at six U.S. ports. It was the lone protest among members of the government committee that eventually approved the deal without dissent.

and here are some other comforting bits of the story

The report concluded that U.S. spy agencies were "unable to locate any derogatory information on the company," according to a person familiar with the document. This person spoke only on condition of anonymity because the report was classified.

Like
WMD
FALL OF COMMUNISM
ETC

good gravy so *IS* it a problem?

Adventures in Watching the Spanish Channel

I was watching one of the spanish channels and saw Dora The Explorer.... in the english language channels Dora does a good job teaching kids to speak spanish.so i thought SURELY on the spanish channel Dora would expose kids to english. No sadly that is not the case.

In what may be the most depressing thing i've seen online....

Ya see Gainsville is the type of town you only like if you are going to the University of Florida. So This story out of the greater alachua county/gainsville story doesn't really surprise me. It does however make me feel sad.

Hansen said Smetzer was a soft-spoken man who lived in the area about eight years ago.

Throughout the years, Smetzer would visit his former landlord, with whom he remained close friends.

Hansen said Smetzer's landlord found a suicide note last June on his door but did not think much of it because Smetzer had shown suicidal tendencies for years.

A man whom he rememained frends with for years after didn't think anything of his suicided note

the results the man's skeleton was found outside the area where he used to live

horrible

This moment of Videogames

to to funny

Are you a Fan of Star Trek?

If you are then I Highly Recommend the Blog Comedy of Captain Picard's Journal where you get to see the Next Generation gang like if they were a sitcom

Another day of blogg

Another day of blogger block.

I think it has to do with my allergies from my trip down to Sarasota… don’t feel much up to blogging today

Sacked out at my Mom's

got through adventures in the DMV and other errands kids....

so its low blog time today

According to the Drudge man

The dubai deal has to do with much more then just our security

Documents obtained by the AP show the Bush administration's conditions for approving a ports sale required a Dubai company to cooperate with future U.S. investigations and disclose internal operations records on demand... Developing...

Dubai is a big port of call for Heroin smugglers which help to fund terrorist activities (out of yer central asian opiate growers) so this deal was quid pro quo. You get these ports if you actually give us the ability to attack opiate smugglers.

however its not all ducks and roses

The administration did not require Dubai Ports to keep copies of business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to court orders. It also did not require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate U.S. government requests. Outside legal experts said such obligations are routinely attached to U.S. approvals of foreign sales in other industries.

"They're not lax but they're not draconian," said James Lewis, a former U.S. official who worked on such agreements. If officials had predicted the firestorm of criticism over the deal, Lewis said, "they might have made them sound harder."

Where Bush goes off the rails

President Bush in my mind is a great failure as a President in some very real ways. And we’ve seen with the Harriet Miers issue, the Dubai ports issue the flaws and where the President’s political machine goes off the rails. I have commented on the Dubai ports deal as an issue of politics but I am very briefly going to state my opinion. Because when I state my opinions on why this issue and the Miers issue will be revisited again and again until 2008 rolls around I don’t want to be slandered (as a Presidential proxy, and some bloggers are now doing) as being Anti-Arab.

I think this Dubai ports deal is very good as a matter of foreign policy relative to the Middle East. It shows good support of our ally’s interests. It helps to buttress our position in the Middle East.

I do however think the White House should have used this trade deal to leverage a whole bunch of trade liberalization issues with the U.A.E government.

I do however also think as a larger message on the stressing of a liberal economic system this deal is a major foreign policy blunder. I think the U.S government should as a matter of policy “stack the deck” against companies that are DeJur or DeFacto state enterprises. We shouldn’t be put into a position to be obvious about it but we should rig the system so a state owned company can never meet the bid.

I also think the government should really keep out of deals like this as much as is possible.

I think in the political climate with issues of border and port security being so sensitive I think their needed to be at least more transparency of the process in some ways. And I think the President could have made that happen.

I feel for President Bush because this was a tough…perhaps one of the toughest kinds of decisions a President must make. And I think the President could have said some of these kinds of things I said.

A dark flame is burning in the political body politic. And I think this flame seems to be the way the President’s team (if not the President himself) respond to people on his team who disagree with his picks. When those of us who disagreed with Harriet Miers were accused of being Anti-Woman because we had real disagreements with her appointment many of us (myself included) were upset. Finding ourselves now painted as Anti-Arab shows a very disgusting new trend.

“If you disagree with us you are a bigot” Isn’t that what we used to accuse the Democrats and leftists of? Tarring and feathering everyone who disagrees with you on a matter of policy on some fundamental flaw of character…racial or sexual bigotry. Didn’t we always say that doing so was their way to shut down debate? Appeal to a moral authority to distract from the flaw of their position….It takes away from any appeal to a more reasonable argument in defense of their position.

Why are Bush proxies out their saying “You’re a racist.” Why were Bush proxies out there saying “You’re a sexist.” No official or unofficial member of the White House team should ever put on those very dirty gloves in the area of public debate. So some one in the White House thought this was a good idea… and as the old “Evil Overlord” check list told us to do a 7 year old would know calling some one a “doodie head” won’t work. But the fact no one advising the President is as sensible as a 7 year old shows a failure of political leadership that should lead to a mass firing and bloodletting at the White House that should be unprecedented in US history. Worse the President is implying these same hints which is even worse.

The second major flaw comes in what my ancestral history in Missouri makes me unable to tolerate. “Trust Us.” I am sorry but I thought we were Republicans. I thought that the political team that lead to among other things, the very policies the President used to advance into the White House were born from people who if anything are the direct opposite of trusting the government.

But in a larger issue I'd have to say 9-10-2001 I was fairly trusting that (within reason) my government would keep people from taking a plane and weaponizing it and killing thousands of Americans.

And while much of the 9-11 commission is garbage i think the one thing the got absolutely dead on was "trusting" the government didn't work.

So beyond issues of political culture, and beyond the historical realities their is a bigger issue. Bush has run out of "trust me" cards.

from Harriet Miers to the War in Iraq the President has write a lot of stuff up on the "trust" card bill... and he really hasn't put a payment into the system. For a man who is a buisness major he should understand concepts like credit and he clearly doesn't. Nor does he understand when people refuse to take his credit and gets pretty angry

well it looks like his trust card is finally going to get chopped up.

and the last leg on this stool is refusing to address the concerns of others. This is part I think of his general disdain for transperency. But in so doing, and insulting those who disagree, and asking for blind trust it creates an island of opposition that is fueled to the point it will go to the matresses

If i think of further ways this telling flaw on how the president deals with oppisition comes up I'll let you know. But i think these examples will be key in how future historians talk about how the Bush administration works